Thursday, October 11, 2018

There's another court date for Maria Hrynenko and three other people accused of manslaughter for the deadly explosion that destroyed three buildings at 119-123 Second Ave. in March 2015.

According to public records, Hrynenko, who owned No. 119 and 121, and the other three defendants will appear in court on Monday.

Records show that Hrynenko and the other accused have appeared in New York County Criminal Court 19 times since February 2016... and the outcome was the same — "adjourned/bail continued" — since their initial appearance...

To recap...In February 2016, Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance's office charged Hrynenko and four others with manslaughter and negligent homicide for their alleged role in the blast that killed two men and injured more than a dozen other people in the buildings between Seventh Street and St. Mark's Place.

Vance's office charged Maria and her son, Michael Jr., along with contractor Dilber Kukic and plumber Jerry Ioannidis with manslaughter in the second degree, criminally negligent homicide and assault in the second degree, among other charges. (The final defendant, licensed plumber Andrew Trombettas, was charged with offering a false instrument​,​ for allegedly lending his name and license number to paperwork.)

The five were accused of installing an illegal gas system, which they hid from inspectors, at No. 119 and 121. All five pleaded not guilty.

An obituary posted last August at the Pizzi Funeral Home website stated that Michael Jr. died on Aug. 25, 2017. He was 31. A cause of death was not disclosed for Hrynenko, who was also called Mischou.

In early August, the development team behind the proposed 7-story condoplex at part of the explosion site (the former No. 119 and 121) received approval from the Landmarks Preservation Commission for a high-end residential building with ground-floor retail.

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